


to see her shadow in your steps

by DuendeJunior



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Developing Relationship, Friends With Benefits, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuendeJunior/pseuds/DuendeJunior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, Clint Barton had epiphanies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to see her shadow in your steps

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hieiandshino](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hieiandshino/gifts).



> For Hee, as a quite belated birthday gift, haha. She proofread it herself, but I added some things after that, so any remaining mistakes are mine.
> 
> Inspired by how Wanda is a crucial part of Pietro's life (and storylines, sometimes).
> 
> Marvel (all media types) does not belong to me.

Sometimes Clint had epiphanies. Most of the time, they happened when he wasn’t doing nothing else, like that one Sunday morning after Pietro Maximoff spent the night on his bed.

The day had started normal enough. The weather outside was dreadful and he thought he could skip the superhero job – as far as he knew, his usual bad guys also preferred sunny days (or just less cloudy ones). He had put on his hearing aids before crawling out of bed to make some toast and grab a beer. Not the healthiest of choices, but Kate was spending the week with a friend on the other side of the country, and that counted as a free pass in his book.

After a few minutes with only the sound of the bottle hitting the kitchen counter filling the place, he heard covers rustling on his bedroom. It didn’t take long until Pietro showed up on the kitchen too, seeming more concerned about how cold environments affected the health than Clint did, since he had already put again his long-sleeved gray shirt and some pants and Clint… Well, Clint hadn't bothered with anything other than underwear.

Pietro looked at him and nodded, which was as good as an enthusiastic “Good morning!” coming from him. Clint nodded back, watching as he went to the fridge and grabbed a beer for himself. And then he frowned. He wasn’t sure about what they had, but he had been expecting Pietro to get dressed in a millisecond and flee from the apartment soon after; a shared breakfast wasn’t on his plans.

Clint was still frowning when Pietro sat on the other side of the counter, facing him, and was startled by the quiet “Anything wrong?” muttered by the other hero.

“Nothing in particular”, Clint answered before taking another gulp from his beer. Pietro said nothing, but his lips were slightly pressed.

Feeling a bit awkward, Clint pushed the plate – which still contained two pieces of toast – on Pietro’s direction. Pietro accepted them without a word, but did not eat anything, choosing to play with the food instead. His moves were too careful – almost like he was unsure of himself and of his surroundings.

He looked so much like Wanda that Clint all but spilled the rest of the beer on his face.

“Are you sure all is well?” Quicksilver asked. It was his time to frown at Clint, who had ended up choking and had to run to the sink to spit.

“Yeah, sure. Just got beer into the wrong hole”, Clint managed to say when he was sure there was no more liquid on his trachea.

“Right. Just do me a favor and don’t kill yourself by accident while I’m still here. It’s going to be hard to explain to Tigra and the others that I had nothing to do with it.”

Clint snorted, going back to his chair.

“I can try.”

Pietro shrugged and rose from the bar stool, taking the plate and the bottle with him. Clint watched his movements as he threw the bottle on the trash can and put the plate over the sink, the pieces of toast untouched. Pietro still moved like he was walking on ice, each step deliberate and careful. It was quite out of place for Quicksilver, who thought and acted as fast as he moved and looked careless and wild while doing so, but it fit _Pietro_ – who had lost so much for acting that way – like a glove.

Clint’s thoughts flew to Wanda again. Wanda, who had been extra-mindful of everything she did after the whole “no more mutants” debacle; Wanda, whose face always had a pinch of worry in it; Wanda, whom he had loved dearly – if for a short time – so many years ago.

That’s when it hit him that, while Pietro was very much his own person, there was a fair bit of Wanda on him – from the fear of alienating again the ones they cared about to the really long legs. And if he found Wanda again and paid attention to her, he’d find all the similarities with Pietro within her.

Clint felt like he should have realized that earlier, with Pietro and Wanda being twins and whatnot, but apart from that, he wasn’t sure about what else to feel. He just knew he wasn’t very fond of that line of thought. Love and attraction were complicated enough without seeing old flames reflected on new ones.

“You are far too quiet, Hawkeye. Stop making me worry about your mental state.” Pietro was standing behind him at a safe distance. Clint looked at him, biting his own lip.

“We should go back to the bed.” He decided. “It’s still Sunday.” And if Sunday seemed to be a day to have epiphanies, it didn’t mean it was a day to deal with them.

He could do that later – much, much later.

**Author's Note:**

> The whole Clint/Wanda problem happened during the 1972-73 issues of _Avengers_ (I checked especially issues 108 and 109): Wanda decided she would marry Vision, and Hawkeye had a problem with that (I recall he liked her for quite a long time, but all his anger for their marriage lasted for one issue. Oh, Marvel).
> 
> I'm still not so sure of my ability to write longer texts in English, so feel free to add any tips in the comments x3


End file.
